DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9059#0050
CHRONOLOGY.
46
III. — CHRONOLOGY.
Egypt is surpassed by no other nation in point
of antiquity. Pre-historic remains, it is true,
carry us back to a much more remote period,
but if we seek monuments that bear the stamp
of an already refined civilization, the most
ancient are certainly to be found in Egypt.
But easy as it may be to believe in the tra-
dition which assigns to Egypt so prodigious an
antiquity, it is equally difficult to bring forward
scientific proofs of that antiquity. Records of
eclipses and other astronomical phenomena,
which are still wanting, could alone furnish the
required testimony.
In the meantime, we have no other source
but the lists of Manetho and the dates inscribed
in these lists. Unfortunately, disorder reigns
supreme here. Not only the dates taken from
Manetho are not in accordance with extracts
taken from Julius Africanus and Eusebius, but
we possess two versions of the Chronicle of
Eusebius, the dates of which do not agree with
each other. On the other hand, it too often
happens that the hieroglyphs themselves furnish
us with dates which contradict the duration
assigned to certain reigns by the national
46
III. — CHRONOLOGY.
Egypt is surpassed by no other nation in point
of antiquity. Pre-historic remains, it is true,
carry us back to a much more remote period,
but if we seek monuments that bear the stamp
of an already refined civilization, the most
ancient are certainly to be found in Egypt.
But easy as it may be to believe in the tra-
dition which assigns to Egypt so prodigious an
antiquity, it is equally difficult to bring forward
scientific proofs of that antiquity. Records of
eclipses and other astronomical phenomena,
which are still wanting, could alone furnish the
required testimony.
In the meantime, we have no other source
but the lists of Manetho and the dates inscribed
in these lists. Unfortunately, disorder reigns
supreme here. Not only the dates taken from
Manetho are not in accordance with extracts
taken from Julius Africanus and Eusebius, but
we possess two versions of the Chronicle of
Eusebius, the dates of which do not agree with
each other. On the other hand, it too often
happens that the hieroglyphs themselves furnish
us with dates which contradict the duration
assigned to certain reigns by the national